Texas county says Harvey scam nearly cost it $888K

Houston-area leaders will hire an outside firm to analyze how they nearly lost about $888,000 to a person claiming to have done repair work following Hurricane Harvey.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Harris County commissioners this week voted to have a firm review how the county’s payments are processed and distributed.

Commissioners were notified last month that the county nearly lost the money after receiving an email from someone posing as a contractor requesting payment for debris removal and other work.

The county paid the money but was able to retrieve it after being notified by the real contractor that the claim was bogus.

The review of operations will include an assessment of cybersecurity measures.

The analysis comes as officials are seeing an increase in overseas hacking attempts on county servers.